God Speaks | Lesson Four

Show Notes

Mollie Snow introduces the historical setting of Zephaniah before Bethany Golding teaches from Zephaniah 1 about the day of the Lord. Together, they call believers to turn from idolatry and divided devotion, trust God’s Word, and find lasting satisfaction in the living water Jesus gives.

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So today, I know you're excited because we're starting a new book of the Bible. We are moving into Zephaniah. So before Bethany comes out to teach, I would like to set the political and cultural stage within the book of Zephaniah. Now, because we know that Habakkuk and Zephaniah are contemporaries, which means that their ministries take place during the same historical period, let's go ahead and review what we've learned from the past three weeks of our study. All right, the 12 tribes of Israel have been divided into two kingdoms. We have the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom is composed of 10 tribes, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom has the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Now, for 200 years, both kingdoms have suffered the consequence of disobedience and idolatry, led by unfaithful, power-hungry kings. They have rejected and ignored all of the prophets that God sent to warn them about their looming destruction. All 19 kings of the Northern Kingdom were judged as wicked or disobedient, and only eight of the 20 kings of the Southern Kingdom were praised as good kings. Now, the Northern Kingdom is eventually taken away into captivity by Assyria in 722 BC, and despite having a front row to the destruction of their fellow Israelites, the Southern Kingdom continues in their rebellion against the Lord. They were in desperate need of a godly king. By 640 BC, Judah has crowned a new ruler, eight-year-old King Josiah. It is during the reign of this child king that Zephaniah's ministry takes place. Although young, King Josiah brings a renewed morality to the Southern Kingdom, and in 622, the law is found hidden in the walls of the temple. Fueled by the word of God, the king strives to bring the people back to the Lord through repentance and submission. He tears down the pagan altars, gets rid of idols all over the nation. It seems that the tides have turned, yet unfortunately, although idolatry is no longer surface-level, it has already poisoned the people's hearts. While they are half-heartedly serving the Lord, they are also serving Baal and Molech. Their loyalties had shifted long ago, and in an effort to combine holiness with heresy, they had sealed their fate. Zephaniah will address this issue directly. So in the first verse of the book of Zephaniah, it uniquely identifies the prophet's royal lineage, providing a direct connection to Hezekiah, one of the few good kings of Judah. This identification gives him credibility with his audience and a platform for his message. And Zephaniah's message is threefold. Judgment is necessary, destruction is approaching, restoration will come. Destruction would be widespread. No part of Jerusalem would be spared. The Lord did not have an intention to deliver His people from the enemy, but to the enemy. But restoration is promised, and when God makes a promise, we can be sure that it'll come to pass. Good morning, ladies. I am excited and humbled to be teaching you today. There's a lot of you. I've only spoken to little moms groups in the past. And before we pray and jump into our lesson, I wanted to give a quick intro. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Bethany, and I am Donna's daughter. I am married and we've got four kids and we have one on the way. So we're very excited about that and thankful. So, but to give a proper introduction, do any of you know about the website Temu, T-E-M-U? Have any of you ever shopped from Temu? Okay, so you know that you can get items on there very cheaply priced, right? You can get some great prices, some good deals, some knockoffs, some dupes, but the quality is probably not gonna be great, right? Sometimes, you might find something good. Well, I have a picture on this slide show. I'm not sure if they have it. Okay, this is what you could expect if you ordered Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse costumes from Temu. So they look a little bit like Mickey and Minnie, but they're lacking quality. So I wanted to introduce myself as Temu Donna. I do look a little bit like her, but please don't expect the same quality. Okay, so now that that's out of the way, we can jump in. All right, so on a serious note, our lesson today is very serious. So that's about as much humor as we're going to get, but let me pray for us and we will jump in. Dear Jesus, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the gift of sisterhood, the gift of women's Bible studies, Lord, the gift of childcare, that we can know that our kids are being taken care of and learning about you while we get to come together with women and discuss your word and learn from your word. And God, we just pray that all of us right now would have hearts with good soil so that the seeds of your word would be buried down deep and that you would produce an abundant harvest in our lives, Lord, from what we learned today, because we know that your word does not return void. God, I need your help to speak to these women clearly, and I pray that you would speak through me. We love you in Jesus' name, I pray, amen. All right, Mollie did an awesome job giving us an intro of the book of Zephaniah. When I was asked to teach this chapter and read the full chapter, I said, okay, all right. A lot of judgment, no restoration this week. I'm really sorry. Okay, so she did a great job setting us up. We know that Zephaniah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. We know that the northern kingdom of Israel has already been taken captive by Assyria, and sadly, Judah is not learning from their neighbor's mistakes, right? We know that Zephaniah was warning the people of Judah about the day of the Lord, which is what my lesson is entitled today, the day of the Lord. You're going to hear that multiple times throughout this chapter, when destruction would come to the kingdom of Judah because of their sin. So let's go ahead, if you have your Bibles, and open up to Zephaniah chapter one. We're not gonna read verse one again, but we are gonna look at it. And if you don't have your Bible, I know that Zephaniah chapter one was also in our workbook this week. I did the homework, and it was really great. So we see in this very first verse that Zephaniah was the great, great grandson of good King Hezekiah. Do you remember him? We looked at him this week in our homework. And Zephaniah prophesied during Josiah's reign. Many believe that his prophecies and words of warning led to the great reformation and revival under King Josiah that Mollie talked about. And it is so wonderful that he was related to Hezekiah, and that he prophesied during Josiah's reign. However, neither one of those things were the most important things about Zephaniah. We know that the most important part of verse one is this, the word of the Lord, which came to Zephaniah. The words that we're about to study in this chapter are not from Zephaniah. They were and are from Yahweh, the God of Israel. One commentator said, Zephaniah had the royal blood of Hezekiah in his veins, but far better, he had a royal message from Yahweh on his lips. As soon as we jump into our text, we will see that the message of Yahweh was one of warning, of impending judgment because of their idolatry. Does that sound exciting? Let's dive in. So number one, the first point is that judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. And this covers verses one through three. Let's read verses two and three. I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I will remove human and animal life. I will remove the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea and the ruins along with the wicked. And I will eliminate mankind from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. As our homework mentioned this week, verse two is just a reversal of Genesis one. God's good orderly world is going to descend back into disorder, darkness, and chaos, very similarly to the flood. One commentator said, Zephaniah 1.3 contains a striking literary feature. We also learned about this in our homework. The prophet appears to reverse the order of creation described in Genesis one, portraying God's judgment as a kind of uncreation. In other words, the judgment of the day of the Lord is depicted as the undoing of the created order because of human sin. We know that judgment is coming, the day of the Lord is near, but this is not just a universal warning. We see in our next section of verses that not only is judgment coming, but Zephaniah says to the people of Judah, judgment is coming to you. So we're gonna spend the most time today in this middle section of the chapter. Number two is that judgment is coming to you. And this covers verses four through 13. Our homework this.

told us that Zephaniah 1, 1-3 is a more universal, generalized announcement of destruction and judgment. But by verse four, the Lord's attention has narrowed to Judah and specifically on Jerusalem. The Israelites were very familiar with hearing prophets warn them, right? There were a lot of prophets that came to warn them to repent of their sin, and if they didn't, destruction was coming. But this warning is sobering because it is completely specific to Judah. It is completely specific to them. Zephaniah does not hold back and he does not mince words. So Walter Kaiser said, "'Zephaniah was a no-nonsense, "'all-business writer and speaker. "'Many speakers will attempt to warm up their audiences "'with a certain amount of humor "'and various types of pleasantries. "'This prophet felt the times and the issues "'were far too serious for any warm-up period. "'Immediately, he launches into the hard facts "'he had to deliver from God.'" So we're gonna read verses four through seven and spend some time talking about the idols that the Israelites worshiped and similarly the idols that we look to and try to worship today. So verses four through seven say, "'So I will stretch out my hand against Judah "'and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. "'I will eliminate the remnant of Baal from this place "'and the names of the idolatrous priests "'along with the other priests. "'And those who bow down on the housetops "'to the heavenly lights, "'and those who bow down and swear to the Lord, "'but also swear by Milcom. "'And those who have turned back from following the Lord, "'and those who have not sought the Lord "'nor inquired of him, "'be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord,'' there it is again, "'is near, "'because the Lord has prepared a sacrifice "'and he has consecrated his guests.'" And we know who the guests are, right? We see that the Israelites had been worshiping Baal and we hear about Baal a lot in the Old Testament. They've been worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, all of the heavenly hosts, right? They've been worshiping the creation instead of the creator. They'd even been worshiping Milcom, who that was not as familiar to me, but he's also known as Molech. And I know you know who Molech was probably, he was the detestable God of the Ammonites and he was associated with child sacrifice. And this is a little heavy and I know that we don't think, we might have child sacrifice in our day anymore, but we do. We are sacrificing our own children at the altar of unfettered sexual desire and at the altar of convenience. Verse five shows us that the Israelites were practicing syncretism in their worship. We're gonna be talking about syncretism a lot. They were swearing to the Lord, but also swearing by Milcom. They kept Yahweh, they kept God. They just added all their other idols as well. And don't we tend to practice syncretism in our own lives? We worship God, but we also worship our idols. And our idols today look different, right? Than they did in the Old Testament. They might be more palatable than child sacrifice, but they are every bit as deadly. We worship the idols of comfort, control, materialism, wealth, technology, our phones, our spouses, our children, really any relationship that might be in your life can turn into an idol, right? And the list just could go on and on. So in studying for this lesson, the theme of idolatry from Zephaniah 1 naturally rose to the top. So I skimmed through a book by Tim Keller called Counterfeit Gods, The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the only hope that matters. And I'm sorry, I don't think I included these quotes in your handout, but he had a great way of knowing what an idol is and identifying an idol in your own life. And I would highly recommend the book Counterfeit Gods if you want to study more about idolatry after this lesson. Tim Keller says that an idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts. If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning. Then I'll know I have value and then I will feel significant and secure. You might think, well, I haven't made money, sex or power an idol in my life. Tim Keller also goes on to say the true God of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention. And I know if you're like me and you're a mom and you have young kids, you think, when is nothing else demanding my attention? But there are pockets, right? And what do we start thinking about? I'm immediately pulling out a to-do list, thinking about a lot of things that really aren't eternal, a lot of things that don't matter. But I want you to think about that for just a moment. What do you think about when you have a moment of downtime? What do you spend most of your money on? Here's a big one. What do you mostly talk about? Jesus says in the book of Matthew and in the book of Luke that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You talk about what you love. My mom has always said that she can tell what is important to someone after about 10 minutes of being with them because they're going to talk about it, right? What our heart loves comes out of our mouth. And my mom's been teaching me that since I was in high school, when things were coming out of my mouth, maybe in a bad tone. And she was constantly telling me that is a heart issue, right? So we know that we're gonna look at a verse real quickly from Ezekiel, very quickly. And God was speaking to another prophet named Ezekiel when he told them about the Israelites in Ezekiel 43, eight. They put their idol altars right next to mine with only a wall between them and me. They defiled my holy name by such detestable sin. So I consumed them in my anger. They were putting up little walls in the temple to divide God from their idols. And we are now God's temple, right? Do we have a divided heart? Do we worship God and put up a little wall and also fill in the blank here? Do we put little walls up in our hearts between our idols and the Lord? If we know that we are now God's temple, 2 Corinthians 6, 16 says, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The first time I really read through the Bible chronologically, I did something called the Bible recap. Have any of you ever heard of that? I'm sure you have. The theme that I immediately noticed, this was years ago, was the theme of idolatry. It is all throughout the Old Testament. And we know that obviously we still deal with it today. So I started highlighting all the times that the Israelites looked to idols instead of to the Lord and just wrote the word theme beside it. I have a Bible where I just traced this theme. And one of my very favorite verses on idolatry is found in 2 Kings chapter 17, during the fall of Israel when the Northern Kingdom was exiled because of their idolatry, right? We know this happened before Zephaniah was prophesying to Judah. And I'm gonna read you several verses, but please hang with me because they are so good and really drive the point home that we are looking at today about idolatry. 2 Kings 17, 14 through 18. But they, the Israelites, would not listen, but were stubborn as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. This is my favorite part. They went after false idols and became false. They followed the nations that were around them. Does that sound familiar? Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them, that they should not do like them. And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord, their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served Baal. This is just like what Zephaniah was calling out the people in Judah for doing, right? And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. Now, if we will skip down to verse 41. So these nations feared the Lord, and here we see syncretism, because it says that they feared the Lord and also served their carved images. But this is the worst part. Their children did likewise, and their children's children, as their fathers did, so they do to this day. Why did the Israelites become false like the false idols they worshiped? Because you've probably heard this quote before, we become what we behold. We become what we worship. We were all made to behold, we were all made to worship. There is something in science called mirror neurons, and a definition of mirror neurons is this, they are specialized brain cells that fire both when you perform an action and when you watch someone else perform that same action. So this is why you can bring a little newborn home and you smile at that newborn all the time every day for the, you know, hopefully all of its life, but definitely in those first two months. And when you're smiling at that baby, what does that baby do back to you eventually? They smile back at you, that's how they learn. Mirror neurons are why every teenager you know dresses the same, wears the same shoes, walks the same. It's basically like why we in the South, we all do the same things, right? We eat.

while our people in the North eat stuffing. You know, they just, God created us to see the people around them. You probably copy a lot of the mannerisms that your parents had, because we mimic what we see. And sometimes that's taught as a bad thing, but it's actually the way God created us, which is why it's so important who you hang out with, right? Because we become what we behold, we become the people we're around. We were made in God's image, and we are literally image bearers. So to become more like God, what do we have to do? We have to look at Him. How do we look at Him instead of at our idols? We spend a lot of time looking at idols, right? But we can behold God in His word, in prayer, in our focus and perspective. One commentator said, 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. The commentator said, this is a transformation of the whole person. And I would like to add, this is not behavior modification by following a set of rules. This is transformation of the whole person by spending time with and looking to Jesus. So we know you've probably heard of the prophet Jeremiah. He was a contemporary of the prophet Zephaniah, and he was also prophesying to Judah during the divided kingdom. And he also had a problem with the people's idols. So Jeremiah 2.13 says, For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. What is the difference between a fountain and a cistern? A quick Google search tells us that a cistern is a man-made tank used to hold and store water, often rainwater. But a fountain is a natural spring or an artificial structure that continuously shoots or flows fresh, moving water. A cistern holds a static supply that can and often does run out, while a fountain acts as a dynamic source that produces water. So we know that the Israelites forsook the fountain of living waters, which is God, right? For man-made cisterns that didn't even hold the water that they had because they were broken. What man-made cisterns do we today chase to satisfy our thirst? Those would be the idols of our day. And we've already talked about some of them. We know money, materialism, maybe it's living in the right area, being in the right group, having your kids in the right school. I mean, so many things can turn into idols. And we know that getting every single thing we want from these little broken cisterns and from the idols of our day will not satisfy, right? So why do we keep chasing to taste these things, just like the Israelites kept chasing to taste and see the idols in their new land, the promised land, right? As we are chasing satisfaction from broken cisterns, we are also devastatingly, like 2 Kings 17 told us, leading our kids to the same broken cisterns. Because they watch how we spend our money and our time. They listen to what we talk about. I heard a lady named Millie Hale recently say that children do not inherit our convictions, they inherit our priorities. Justin Whitmore, early, I didn't have this in my notes, but he basically says that as we become our habits and our kids become us, not just necessarily what we're teaching them. So if I asked your child today, or if you don't have a child, if I asked your spouse or if I asked your friend, what is the most important thing to so-and-so? What do you think they would say? Ask them, especially if you're a mom of little kids, it is a great litmus test to what they think, that you think is most important. So Psalm 34 tells us two different things, that those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. Remember those mirror neurons? And to taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. So why do we keep looking to everything and everyone around us, like the Israelites did, to assign value and meaning to our lives, instead of looking up and seeing him the only one who can rightly assign value and meaning to our lives? This is something that my mom used to always tell me, I don't have it in exact quotes, but if we look inward, we can quickly become self-focused and depressed, which I think is where most of our culture is looking, we love to look inward, and it really doesn't help a lot. If we look outward, we crave the approval of others, and often we feel shame, right, when we don't measure up, or when we feel like we're not enough, but when we look to him, we become more like him, and therefore, like Psalm 34 says, our faces will never be covered in shame, because we're not projecting our own image to the world, we are projecting his image. And the emphasis of Zephaniah's message to the people is clearly idolatry, and verse seven is the first of several times that we will see the phrase, the day of the Lord. Our homework told us, though, that the day of the Lord points to the coming judgment of God, however, the judgment that will be unleashed on Judah also serves as a shadow of the greater tribulation still to come, the end times events described in the book of Revelation. We know that prophets often prophesied about something in the near future and the distant future at the same time, so he was warning them about the destruction of Judah while he was also warning them about the destruction of the end times. So our last and final point is judgment is here, and this covers the last five verses of our text, judgment is here. Our homework told us that the day of the Lord portrayed in the final portion of Zephaniah one is an illustration referencing the final judgment that will take place in Revelation six through 19. I wanna read the last five verses of this passage. The great day of the Lord, there it is again, is near, near and coming very quickly. Listen, the day of the Lord. In it, the warrior cries out bitterly. That day is a day of anger, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and the high corner towers. I will bring distress on mankind so that they will walk like those who are blind because they have sinned against the Lord, and their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's anger. This is the main part right here. And all the earth will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete end, indeed a horrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth. So let's look at part of verse 18, that last verse we just read. And all the earth will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. God does not punish his people just to be cruel. He disciplines us just like he did the Israelites with a purifying fire. He brings his wrath down to destroy sin because he knows that otherwise sin will ultimately destroy us and destroy those around us. Why does Jesus discipline us with a purifying fire? Because Ephesians 5 says that he is preparing a spotless bride to present to his father, right? You guys will be studying the prophet Malachi at the end of this study. So I don't wanna give too much away, but I have to include a few verses from Malachi chapter three. We're gonna look at verses two through four that say, but who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, there's that purifying fire, and like fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. Malachi asks us two very important questions. Who can endure the day of the Lord and who can stand when he appears? No one. No one except for Jesus Christ, the son of God. And thankfully, these Israelites were not on the side of the cross that we are on, right? We know that Jesus endured the day of the Lord when he took on God's wrath and punishment on the cross that should have been for us. In John chapter two, right after Jesus cleansed the temple, he said, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days. But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead.

Disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scriptures and the word that Jesus had spoken. Jesus referred to his body as the temple. Zephaniah predicted in the destruction of Judah that the temple in Jerusalem, the actual building, would be destroyed and that ultimately the whole world would be destroyed in the end times, the whole earth. But praise the Lord, that is not where the story ends. Jesus would have come and allow his body, the temple, to be destroyed so that the believer's story does not have to end in destruction. Tim Keller said, Jesus entered human sorrow and faced death so he could ultimately destroy suffering without destroying us. And it doesn't end there. When we are in Christ, we are his temple. First Corinthians 3.16, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? The Holy Spirit dwells in us if we are believers. We don't look towards the end times and anticipate judgment and destruction if we are believers and have the Holy Spirit in us. That day, the day of the Lord, is coming for the unbeliever. But for the believer, this is the day that we get to look forward to and long for. These verses were in your homework. They're from Revelation 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Remember what we talked about from Ephesians 5? Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That church has been through the purifying fire. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. Praise the Lord. And just a few more verses from Revelation because they're too good and they kind of tie in the end of our lesson. These verses are from the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, verses one through four. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. Opposite of those little broken cisterns, right? This is the fountain of living water that Jeremiah talked about. Bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. The river of the water of life will be flowing from the throne of God. Living water, not the broken cisterns and the empty idols of Zephaniah's day. Living water that will satisfy us forever. What is this living water? Jesus tells us in John 7, verses 37 through 39. He stands up on the last day of the feast of booths and he cries out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Jesus is the living water. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were yet to receive. For as yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So he was talking about the Holy Spirit that would come at Pentecost, right? After Jesus had ascended into heaven. The living water is the Holy Spirit. So I was in our minivan recently listening to a song with my kids by Keith and Kristen Getty. And I would really encourage you to look this song up, especially after our lesson today. It's called Living Waters by Keith and Kristen Getty. And these are some of the lyrics. They sing, are you empty? Are you thirsty? Are you empty? Come and drink these living waters. Tired and broken, peace unspoken, rest beside these living waters. This is my favorite part. Lead your children to the shoreline. Life is in these living waters. I got so teary listening to this song in the car with my kids, especially the line that says, lead your children to the shoreline. Life is in these living waters. I began thinking about leading your children to the shoreline of living water every day. The same fountain of living water that Jeremiah talked about, instead of leading them to the broken cisterns and the idols of our day. But if I came up to a river of living water, I'm not, a good mom is not going to throw an infant or a toddler in, right? Now we did ISR swimming lessons and it is kind of the same thing. They kind of do just throw them in there, figure it out. But a good mom is not going to do that, right? We know that a good mom is going to start by bottle feeding the living water, giving them small spiritual truths, giving them bits and pieces of the Bible. Like 1 Peter 2 says, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. So for a toddler, you're probably gonna give them the living water in a sippy cup. We're gonna grow a little bit. We're gonna give big spiritual truths. We're gonna teach more, all of the Bible always to them. But it still has a little lid on it, right? With the spout that has the governor on it. So it's not gonna flow so fast, but it's faster than a bottle. And then when your kids are older, my oldest is almost nine. And then my second oldest is seven. You're going to give them a cup with no lid, right? And Psalm 23 tells us that our cup overflows and you're gonna splash them in the face with the gospel. And in the mornings I had to often tell them about something I read in the Bible that morning, not really always expecting that they're going to understand it. And they understand, kids understand so much more than we give them credit for. Set the bar and they're gonna reach it. Set the bar low, they're gonna reach it, you know? And so I'm always shocked by what my kids can understand. I heard this quote a long time ago. I think it was by Abby Wedgworth, I'm not positive. But she said, we are not going to dumb down our Bibles for kids. We are not going to water down the truth for our kids. We're going to give them big spiritual truths to grow into. By the time your kids are teenagers, they may love the broken cisterns of this world and the idols of our day, because we all get a little bit distracted by those things at some point in life, right? And they may not be very interested in the river of living water. And you might have to grab that teenager by the arm and give them what I call just like a spiritual IV and just give it to them in doses anyways. Just get them to church, teach them anyways. Doesn't matter if they enjoy it or not. Because one day as an adult, they are going to be so thankful that they can approach the river of living water and they can just wade out deep into the depths of Scripture and they can taste it and see it and be satisfied for themselves. And the real reason I got so teary during that song was because I just pictured my dad leading his four children to that river of living water every day that we were in his house in some way. And he was not a perfect parent. And none of us are perfect parents. But we know that he took us to the living water so many times while we were in his house, that when he crossed over that river from death and into life, we had been to the river so many times that we can now find it and taste the living water for ourselves. So if we are living for the day that we read about in Revelation 21 and in Revelation 22, when the living water will flow from the throne of God, I want to echo the words of Zephaniah, it is time to get rid of our idols. And in the words of Ezekiel, it is time to stop living as a divided temple with a divided heart. And I also want to echo the words of Moses when he came down from the mountain and he had the 10 commandments and all of the Israelites were worshiping what? A golden calf. After they had been miraculously, you know, taken out of Egypt, they saw the Red Sea part. It doesn't matter that they had seen all these miracles. They were still chasing their little broken cisterns. And he shouted at them, "'Who is on the Lord's side?' And the sons of Levi came and stood with him. As Joshua declared to the people of Israel when they were so tempted, he knew they were going to be tempted by all the pagan gods in their new land of Canaan, in the promised land. And he told them, "'Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'" So we know that the day of the Lord is coming and it's time to stop wasting time with our idols, our little broken cisterns, and start loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We need to get in on his mission of expanding and preparing his bride that we will worship alongside for all of eternity. Let's give people a taste of the real living water, which is the Holy Spirit in us, in preparation of worshiping beside the living water one day in eternity. And with that, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth that we can even learn in a kind of depressing passage from a minor prophet. Because sadly, everything Zephaniah was telling those Israelites.

is the same thing that you are having to tell us today. God, we beg you to strip us of our idols. We pray that you would expose the idols in our heart, Lord, that compete for your throne. God, we pray that we would run to the living water, to the fountain of living water, instead of to our little broken cisterns, and that we would taste and see that you are good, and that we would lead our children to the shoreline, and that we would lead everyone around us to your living waters, that we would look to you, that our faces would not be covered in shame, and that we could reflect your image to a world that is so confused, trying to find satisfaction everywhere but you. Father, we love you and praise you in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.